The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Macao was recorded at 6.3 percent from September to November, edging down 0.1 percentage point from the August-October period and 0.2 percentage points year on year.
The Statistics and Census Services said Tuesday more jobs were generated in the sectors of construction, manufacturing, real estate and industrial and commercial service. Bucking the improvement were the industries of retail sales and hotel and catering, which employed even fewer people.
The total labor force was estimated at 212,000 including 199,000 employees and 13,300 jobless from September to November.
And the under-employment rate for the Special Administrative Region (SAR) -- targeting those who work part-time or short hours -- stayed at 3.5 percent, the same level with the prior three months, but declining two percentage points per annum.
Although the lukewarm world economy still poses a challenge for Macao’s exports, local authorities expect the jobless strains to be eased due to an investment boom after liberalization of the gambling industry and construction of a host of large public projects.
In his policy address for 2003, Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah vowed to provide more training for the unemployed and create more jobs in the SAR by spurring the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Macao's jobless rate reached a peak in the history -- 7.1 percent -- in the second quarter of 2000 and afterwards it hovered in a range of 6.3 to 6.6 percent, according to statistics.
(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2002)
